The innovative, boundary-smashing work of Nicole Mitchell, whom Chicago Reader music critic Peter Margasak has hailed as the "greatest living flutist in jazz", has contributed new life to Afrofuturism in the 21st Century.

Tickets: 100,- / 50,- for Borealis Listening Club, Bergen JazzforumFree for members and students at KMD

A voracious reader of science fiction since her youth (Afrofuturist author Octavia E. Butler in particular has exerted a heavy influence on her music), the musician, composer and educator has released a string of albums that fold themes centered around technology, spirituality, race and gender into profoundly exploratory jazz that oftentimes reaches far beyond the genre in which it is rooted. Her vast sound can and often does encompass contemporary classical, globally oriented fusion, gospel, spoken word, funk-inspired groove research and even brittle shards of avant-rock. With her recent album Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds (FPE Records; May 2017) she uses science fiction to pose the question, "What would a world look like that is truly egalitarian, with advanced technology that is in tune with nature?" The album featured on many critics' best-of-the-year lists, when summarizing the most important albums from 2017.

For tonight's concert at Utmark, Nicole Mitchell will be playing in a duo constellation, with acclaimed cellist Tomeka Reid.

Tomeka Reid (US) is a cellist, composer and educator. Equally adept in classical and jazz contexts, Reid predominantly finds herself in experimental and improvisatory settings and composes for a wide range of instrumentation, from big band to chamber ensemble. Combining her love for groove along with freer concepts, Reid is an integral part of Dee Alexander's Evolution Ensemble, Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble/Strings, Mike Reed's Loose Assembly, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), Great Black Music Ensemble, and co-leads the string trio, Hear in Now.